Of course at the time, I didn’t know that I could see things that others couldn’t.

 

I found that out at the beginning of the dead woman’s funeral.

 

Zhao Jie and I joined the other children while Xiao Chun attended his mother's funeral. We were staying far away from the funeral procession because Zhao Jie claimed he had seen the dead woman smile. We joked, laughed, and followed from a distance.

 

Xiao Chun’s distant relatives came to the funeral. They shed tears for his poor mother, but Xiao Chun himself held a stick wrapped with white paper and led the procession with a bright smile.

 

According to village tradition, there was an elder carrying and scattering food along the way. The discarded food would lead the dead to rest. The elder walked just behind Xiao Chun in the procession.

 

Uncle Sun claimed the elder position for those proceedings, even though he often made fun of the simpleton. Xiao Chun was silly and gluttonous, turning and watching the elder scattering food, he smiled and shouted nonsense words.

 

While Uncle Sun often bullied Xiao Chun, he knew that now was not an appropriate time. "Be quiet!” He hissed at the giggling fool. “You will have all the food you want when you are under the earth."

 

Xiao Chun didn't understand. He swung the paper wrapped stick, trying to rob the spoon from Uncle Sun’s hand. Uncle Sun bit his tongue and pictured beating Xiao Chun over the head with it. He lowered his voice and hissed, "Dummy, I will beat you senseless if you do that again."

 

Xiao Chun picked up the stick and whipped it into the air before him, scared of further angering Uncle Sun.

 

A few onlookers laughed at the farce. Xiao Chun laughed louder, encouraged by their smiles. He didn't know what they were laughing at. Just as more often then not, we didn’t know what he was laughing at.

 

Zhao Jie said to me, "Xiao Chun is so foolish. He doesn’t even know that others are laughing at him. He snorted in the direction of the funeral.

 

"He is a fool.” I reminded him.

 

Zhao Jie gestured at me to be quiet, "Xiao Yong, don't say that!” He looked around as if we were being watched. “His mother might hear, and she will punish you!"

 

I felt a brief cold on my back. I looked around, but saw nothing.

 

"Did you hear that?" Zhao Jie asked me.

 

“What?” I asked more in fear than curiosity.

 

I thought back to the night before when I had heard something strange. It was nearly twelve o'clock and something had whined from the street under my window. Sometimes it sounded like crying, but moments later it would change to laughing or screaming.

 

I could not fall asleep, so I asked my mom about ghosts. My mom kept silent for a moment and then shushed me, "Come now sweet one, that is the sound of cat calling for her husband. She calls because she loves him.”

 

“A cat,” I thought. I calmed down and soon fell asleep.

 

I asked Zhao Jie, “Did you hear the wild cat again?"

 

He made a face at me, "A wild cat? It was Xiao Chun’s mother screaming! She must have touched the wood ashes in the doorway. They were messed up this morning, I saw it.”

 

My eyes widened "It was blown by the wind…" I denied with a trace of fear in my voice.

 

Zhao Jie shook his head, "My dad told me that Xiao Chun’s mother looked for us at midnight. If we hadn't scattered the ashes, we would have been eaten. "

 

I shivered again, "Should we get closer to see the funeral? What should we do if Xiao Chun’s mother comes out of the coffin?"

 

"It’ll be okay.” He said smoothly, “My father is here. Although he doesn’t know that you’re here with me."

 

I asked him curiously, "What should I do?"

 

Zhao Jie thought for a moment and said, "You can’t run faster than me. She’ll catch up with you and then her stomach will be full so she won’t chase after me." He smiled matter of factly.

 

Damn it! He was right.

 

Traditionally funeral processions set off at eleven o'clock and the body was buried at twelve. If the procession arrives early, the band performs funeral songs while everyone waits.

 

Funeral processions were never late in our village.

 

When we arrived at the tomb, Zhao Jie’s father checked the time and grabbed a handful of soil to scatter towards it. He turned and looked at the mountain in the distance.

 

At twelve o'clock he called out, "Burying". Four village strong men and the ceremonial elder lifted up Xiao Chun’s mother and put her casket into the tomb.

 

Xiao Chun, who’s face was always adorned with a smile, screamed out so suddenly that everyone turned to look. His round face curled into an expression of anguish.

 

Xiao Chun screamed out again and raced to beat the strong men with the ceremonial stick in his hand. Uncle Sun was the nearest to him and received several whaps to the head and shoulders. As if suddenly realizing that it was Uncle Sun beneath his barrage, Xiao Chun let out a squeak of fright and ran away. He launched his ceremonial stick and barreled into the crowd where his visiting relatives stopped him.

 

Uncle Sun whirled around after the frightened Xiao Chun. When he turned the back of his sandaled feet touched the edge of the tomb.

 

Behind and below him, Xiao Chun’s mother rested in a coffin. Through all of the commotion, no one’s eyes were on her. Uncle Sun looked into the crowd, met Xiao Chun’s watery eyes, and went instantly limp. Uncle Sun’s body fell into the tomb and sprawled atop the coffin, closing it with an audible bang.

 

A lengthy gasp drew from the crowd. Everyone was frightened, though I was more stunned by what I was seeing. A black shadow with blacker clothes had leapt out of the pit and wrapped its too-long limbs around Uncle Sun’s waist.  When its fingers knotted together just below his belly, Uncle Sun fell back. It was Xia Chun’s mother. It had to be!

 

The crowd was stunned into a moment of silence then found its uproar. Many people jumped into the pit to help Uncle Sun. From deep in the grave, his son shouted, "My father has had a heart attack. We need to send him to the village as soon as possible. No! Send him to the town."

 

Several people lifted his body and pulled him from the tomb. They rushed into the village to find a vehicle, carrying him as gently as they could. The surrounding people began to talk in fierce whispers. Zhao Jie’s father asked them to be quiet and he continued to host the funeral.

 

Xiao Chun’s relatives walked around the tomb three times after the coffin was readjusted and closed respectfully. They cried for a while as the remaining strong men added soil into the grave.

 

"Hey, Xiao Yong, what's wrong with you?" Zhao Jie shook me.

 

I came back to reality like a light being turned on.

 

Zhao Jie snorted at me, "You’ve been blank for eight minutes. If you don’t move I’ll have them take you to the doctor with Uncle Sun."

 

I shook my head as if to clear it, “Did you see it? Xiao Chun’s mother pulled him in! Did you see it?”

 

He looked at me stunned. "Xiao Yong, are you confused? Uncle Sun just fell in. Are you frightened out of your wits? His mother is dead."

 

I opened and closed my mouth a few times, trying to think of how to convince Zhao Jie. "Your father told you last night that Xiao Chun’s mother was looking for us. Her ghost! The black shadow must have been her ghost!"

 

He looked at me like I was simple. "I was kidding. I did frighten you, didn't I? My father said it was the sound of wild cats." He laughed.

 

“I...” I began.

 

I swallowed through a desert of a throat, "I really saw that."

 

"Why not ask my father?" He replied coolly, brushing off the whole ordeal.

 

I shook my head. “I’m not going near that tomb.”

 

“Do you want to go back to town then?” He prodded.

 

I shook my head again. “Let’s wait for our parents.”

 

We waited until the end of the funeral. I decided to tell him the details of what I saw on the way home. “It seemed that no one else saw her.” I thought, “Would he trust me?”

 

Or was it an illusion? Maybe I had made a mistake?

 

My mind was reeling.

 

That was the first time I saw a ghost. Several months later, I saw the shadow that was Xiao Chun’s mother many more times. Each time she showed up, someone else would get hurt or killed.